Street Lighting and Road Safety

Street lighting provides a number of important benefits. It can be used to promote security in urban areas and to increase the quality of life by artificially extending the hours in which it is light so that activity can take place. Street lighting also improves safety for drivers, riders, and pedestrians.

Driving outside of daylight hours is more dangerous – only a quarter of all travel by car drivers is between the hours of 7pm and 8am, yet this period accounts for 40% of fatal and serious injuries to the same group 1. Pedestrians and vulnerable road users suffer from decreased visibility in the dark too. For these reason, ways of reducing the risk to all road users during the hours of darkness must be found.